Thursday, May 08, 2008

Happy conservative

Foxnews reports on a study funded by the (US) National Science Foundation and appearing in the June issue of the journal Pschological Science that found that:

"Individuals with conservative ideologies are happier than liberal-leaners, and new research pinpoints the reason: Conservatives rationalize social and economic inequalities.

"Regardless of marital status, income or church attendance, right-wing individuals reported greater life satisfaction and well-being than left-wingers, the new study found.

"Conservatives also scored highest on measures of rationalization, which gauge a person's tendency to justify, or explain away, inequalities...

"Our research suggests that inequality takes a greater psychological toll on liberals than on conservatives apparently because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light."